I remember reading 3 years back (in EE times) about some generic FPGA-like
device, that instead was analog cells that could be on-the-fly reconfigured.
I'm not sure how the reconfiguration worked, or what the capacity of the device
was, but it certainly seemed like it could have very general synthesis
applicability.
Anyone else know what I'm talking about? It might be most appropriate to go to
a device like this, and construct various models to run on it...
Re-issuing chips is a risky business. Hell, even getting fab time at a foundry
is hard -- us Si valley dweebs are taking up all the production lines with our
damn digital stuff.
Now, if you *were* going to do a synth chip, it would probably make sense to
take advantage of modern packaging technology, spend more up front in design,
verification, and layout, and end up with some monster PQFP (plastic quad flat
pack) or BGA (ball grid array) chip that has several hundred lines running into
and out of it for 20 EG's, 4 VCO's, 4 VCF's, etc, etc. Or, heck, do a VCF chip
that represents 10 of the most popular VCF's all on the same chip.
It would be particularly interesting to explore the power consumption
characteristics of modern chip technology, so as to produce a super-power-light
device that had massive modular-like functionality, and could be in a small
widget, and could run on batteries. Like the nord modular, but with real
analog.
Venture captial could probably be found to do this... (Particularly if the
device was milspec, and had functionality that would be interesting in
telecommunications, or the battlefield, or somesuch -- like using the filters
and VCO's in a battlefield radio to help intelligability or something..)
This could be the Intel of synthesizers. :) (Then, of course, you'd have to ID
every chip with a unique number in it, so that Intel and the feds could track
your synthesizer use. Remember the scandal with the PII's?)
Synthesis is not a crime!
--Seth
Paul Schreiber wrote:
Show quoted textHide quoted text
> From: "Paul Schreiber" <synth1@...>
>
> >
> > Has there been any interest in a collective "gathering" of funds to
> finance
> > the re-tooling costs, it would be interesting to see if enough people
> would
> > be up for it.
> >
> > Apart from selling them to D* for loads, the interest in Analogue seems to
> > be snowballing which could make the collective some profit maybe to fund
> > more!. (sorry about the Collective bit, too much 7 of 9 (Borg))
>
> Actually, not having these in wide distribution is a competive advantage for
> me.
>
> But, the main issue is that the chips are designed on a IC process no longer
> available,
> and EVERY chip must be retooled for modern IC design rules. That's $48K *per
> chip*.
>
> AND...I have 4,203 CEM3340 VCO chips. AND being Mr Nice Guy sold 175 to
> Doepfer.
>
> >
> > On a MOTM note, I have just got one of the 320's finished. That LED is
> > great. Could one be used in the VCEG to change colour with EG's progress?
>
> Yes, but that's sort of a power hog.
>
> Paul S.
>
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